GALR

 For our 4 relaxing days in Lake Placid, we stayed at the Golden Arrow Lakeside Resort.  It is our happy spot on the east coast!  (Our happy spot on the west coast is the Del Mar Beach Club).  We didn't want to leave, but hope to return next year!

 It was built by a German family in 1974.  It's Bavarian charm fits in well in the Adirondacks.  The lobby has those huge windows on both sides, one towards the village, the other towards the lake.  Their motto is, "the only thing we overlook is the lake."  Love it!

 We ate at their Generations restaurant for our last night.  I splurged with a surf and turf combo of steak and shrimp- divine!  Below the restaurant is their pool room.  We enjoyed both the cool and hot tubs.

 They also have this little Alpine Mall that exits onto Main Street that is chuck full of cute shops and restaurants.  They also have a night club, but we didn't visit it- ha ha!

Another shot with the sun beginning to set.

Pooh Bear

Hiram, our Pooh Bear is such a good snuggler!

(I really want a new camera though, because I took 10 darling shots of him, but every single one turned out blurry- ugh!)

*Tonight as I was posting this, Hiram, our wildcat let out his roars.  Len grabbed the camera to video it, so that will be coming soon to a blog near you!

BOO- Blogger is broken and won't let me upload the video.  My little pooh bear/wildcat sure is fun though!

Pajama Rama

Our cute kids in their new pj's.

Little Lovelies

We had such a relaxing weekend camping with our friends.  We look forward to doing it again next year!

Our tents, with our neighbor's the Montminy's.

We had a double campsite with two firepits and pavillions.  We roasted many a hot dog and marshmallows for S'mores around this fire.

The other side of our campsite.

A few of our friends have campers- LUCKY!

Sweet little daisy mae's.

These little purple flowers reminded me of snails.

Loved this tiny pink star flower too.

Queen Anne's Lace, so tiny and delicate.

This dragonfly is the only wildlife we saw.  The raccoons kept me up with their chatter one night, but luckily the neighborhood bear didn't drop in to say hello.

Laying on a bench in the ampitheater looking up to the heavens through the tree tops.

The lovely background to the stage at the ampitheater.

I love the lush greenery (but not all the bugs!).

Sweet trail down to the boat launch dock.

Can't wait to see you again next summer!

O, Canada!

We spent a wonderful Canada Day with the Wilde's, Symmond's, Snook's, Piper's, Montminy's, Martin's, Larson's, Gagnon's, Campbell's & Campbell's, Cameron's, Yamada's, Schulzke's, and Beasley's.  Since there were so many of us, we got permission from our Stake President to hold a Sacrament meeting at our campsite.  The ampitheater was a lovely venue- wish we could have church outside more often!  After "church" the kids had a coloring contest, made friendship bracelets, and had a scavenger hunt.  We also feasted on a delicious triple turkey dinner with all the trimmings (Len helped Kevin deep-fry the turkeys, yum!).  In the evening we went down to the lake to watch the neighbors shoot off beautiful fireworks (we also provided a feast for the local mosquitoes- our darn bug spray was worthless, ha ha!).

Showing off our RED.

Six in a swing!  The little kids LOVED the Symmond's hammock and sweet Fumiko pushed them literally for hours and hours!  Poor Gavin did fall out onto his HEAD at one point, but after shedding a few tears he jumped right back in.

While the kids were in the hammock, Hiram found a yummy flower to munch on.

The campsite is ran by a senior couple of missionaries- Elder & Sister Murphy.  When we walked down to the lake in the afternoon, Elder Murphy snapped this pic of us.

Happy Canada Day to my little bi-national family!

Little Bald Lake



 We had a great time at the beach while we were camping.  It was one of those days I was enjoying so much I didn't record it with my camera as much as I should have.  We had fun playing in the sand, watching friends play sand volleyball, swimming out to the dock, jumping on the huge (and my most favorite) water trampoline, rowing in the canoes, and eating lunch.  I did capture a few sweet moments.

 Len with two of his boys, Hiram & Gavin.

 Hiram and Mommy.

 Kaleb taking a minute to relax.  Swimming and building sand cities is hard work!

 Back to the sand city with Emma.

 We had fun with old friends and made great new ones too!  Noe with Emmeline.

 Snack time with Quinn, Molly, Noe, and Emma.

 Gavin and Liam splashing about.

 Teague loved the boogie board and is all ready to start surfing!

I LOVE this picture of little Ryan chillin' in his stroller after snack time, with his awesome summer hair!

To the second

Just wanting to wish Poppa (my second dad) a very happy birthday!!  I love you so much and am so grateful for all you've done for me.  I'm so glad you're in my life.  Much of who I am came from your example.

Mini- summer vacations

Last week we spent 4 fun days camping at the Thomas S Monson Camp with 14 families from church.

This week we're off for another 4 fabulous days.  This time it's just our family going to enjoy the beauty of Lake Placid.  I'm so excited!

To all the feminist housewives out there...

...I just had to share this picture from Strawberry Mohawk. 
Women and Mothers ROCK!

To the first

Madison is our first niece, and today is her birthday!  Have a wonderful day sweetie!!